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This Hawkeye is an avenger … preying on Toronto's pests

Dan Frankian, who uses birds of prey to drive off pigeons and gulls, runs one of several Toronto businesses named after Marvel superheroes.

Falconer Dan Frankian of Hawkeye Bird and Animal Control poses with his hawk Clara at Riverdale Park. He uses birds of prey to drive off or kill animal pests for clients. (Randy Risling / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

He carries a crossbow, a leather glove and a whistle — and on his forearm is perched a deadly bird of prey.

However, unlike the Marvel superhero in the upcoming blockbuster The Avengers: Age of Ultron, this Hawkeye is not a buff Hollywood hunk in a tight jumpsuit. Instead local falconer Dan Frankian opts for khaki pants, a bushy moustache, aviators and a cowboy hat.

It is one of a string of businesses in the Toronto region that share the same moniker as characters from The Avengers. However, the crossbow (used for netting large pests) and the name are pretty much all that Frankian has in common with the fictional Clint Barton, Hawkeye’s alter ego.

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There’s no sleek sky-cycle, like the one the superhero Hawkeye gets about on in Marvel tales. Frankian drives a dusty red Jeep filled with hunting paraphernalia. Little leather bird hoods hang from his dirty dashboard.

In Frankian’s world, the villains are pigeons, seagulls, rats and other species that have become urban pests.

In Riverdale Park, he demonstrates one of the deadly weapons he uses in this battle. Clara, a harrier hawk, stares inquisitively at streetcars, townhouses and passing dogs, as she perches on Frankian’s gloved hand, the talons she usually uses to rip seagulls apart curled around his closed fist.

He scratches stray feathers off Clara’s beak. “Let’s get those stupid things off your nose,” he says.

She looks warily at the brim of his leather cowboy hat and squawks. “Look, you’ve got to get used to the hat,” he tells her.

Frankian, a falconer by trade, has trained birds of prey to hunt or drive off unwanted pests since the 1980s. Owning a bird of prey is not like a normal animal-human connection. “I’m married to this thing for 25 years,” he says, nodding towards Clara.

“Building a relationship between myself and a bird of prey, it’s like finding true love. The hawks, they look at you and they understand that you’re their hunting companion for life.”

With 20 birds of prey on his property near Acton, Ont., it appears Frankian has signed himself up for a lifetime as Hawkeye.

He described the birds of prey as sensitive, perceptive, independent and agile.

“They do nothing but live, eat, breathe and hunt,” he says. “That’s what they are designed to do and that’s what they love to do.”

The birds are trained to stake out their territory at each corner of a downtown skyscraper overrun by gulls or pigeons. They may kill a few in doing so, but most gulls and pigeons flee.

“If you go into the water and see a shark, it doesn’t need to come and bite you for you to run away. It’s similar for these birds, they see a hawk and they’re scared of it, they are off,” he says.

“I don’t actually have to do much of anything. The bird already knows what to do.”

Once the pests are scared off, Hawkeye staff gather up the abandoned nests and eggs.

Hawkeye has “a few thousand clients” in the GTA, from large corporate companies to the government to members of the public complaining about raccoons inside their house.

Frankian, who is now 50, was only 25 when he started the company. The former boy scout and hunter had served five years in the Canadian Armed Forces and “wanted to find a way to make a living and do what I loved.”

“Falconry allowed me to do that and I still love what I do everyday,” he says, looking toward Clara.

Thor

A prominent mural at the back of a Bathurst St. café depicts Thor, the Norse god of thunder. His blond locks have been replaced with a long blue beard, and rather than wielding his iconic hammer this Thor brandishes a coffee tamper. Toronto’s http://www.thorespressobar.com/Thor Espresso BarEND was named after co-owner Tom Junek’s great-grandfather, Thor Johansson. The indie café opened in November 2010 and although it has no ties to the Avengers movies other than the moniker, Junek says his business partner was a big fan of the superhero series. “When the movies come out, we get a lot of fans coming in so it’s pretty good for the business,” he says.

Black Widow

A zombie Scarlett Johansson, the Incredible Hulk and Jack the Ripper are some of the more unusual tattoos that have been etched onto clients at Toronto’s Black Widow Tattoo. The five artists at the Queen St. W. shop generally work on multi-session pieces, some that cover the entire body and can take up to 70 hours to complete. Owner Jack Nehoff, known in the tattooing world as “Chino,” named the shop after finding a black widow spider in his baseball cap one day. Although clients have requested tattoos of Johansson, who plays Black Widow in the movie series, and of black widow spiders, no one has ever asked to be permanently branded with Marvel’s Black Widow character.

Iron Man

Torontonian Tommy Mourgas calls himself an iron man “but I’m not fantasy, I’m reality.” The 49-year-old owner of Wrought Iron Man has watched the Avengers movies but never thought much of Tony Stark’s Iron Man. “Anything you can dream up, I can make because I am an iron man,” Mourgas said. He opened his wrought iron business in 1981 at age 15, after his grandfather taught him how to weld, measure and “build all sorts of stuff” from the metal. The one-man custom shop has built intricate staircases, security gates for embassies and even the huge movie reel-style arbour at the entrance to Toronto’s film studio district, a design Mourgas calls his “tattoo on the city.”

Hulk

Hanna Elfar, an one-time bodybuilder started up Hulk Tool back in 2006, and his son, Andrew, 20, recalls the one-man tool and die business was named in honour of the giant Marvel character. “Me, my dad and my brother were all sitting in the car one day and talking about how Hulk is our favourite superhero and that’s why he named it Hulk Tool,” says Andrew. “He’s just the coolest superhero and he’s very unpredictable, which is kind of like starting up a business.” His father, 50, was a body builder for about six years “so the name is a pretty good fit for his business.”

Captain America

The only Avengers character with no ties to a business in the Toronto region is Captain America. However, there is a Captain Sports in Markham and three American Apparel outlets in downtown Toronto (and if you blend these names, you get Captain American Sports Apparel). Fittingly, Captain Sports is one of the largest wholesale and retail martial arts suppliers in North America, offering items such as sparring equipment, belts, uniforms, weapons, mats, videos and books. American Apparel is a chain clothing store that operates the largest sewing facility in North America. The manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer has more than 200 stores worldwide.

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